Page 37 of Embers of Love

Soon, the woman was sedated and put under. Some of the nurses were still new faces but they knew their jobs. The whole surgery took about an hour. She was halfway through before Doctor Morley arrived and Doctor Morley let her finish.

“Very impressive work” Doctor Morley gushed at Josephine as she left the operating room. “That was the quickest, most efficient appendectomy I have ever witnessed.”

Josephine merely smiled. A real one this time. She loved Phoenix Ridge; the looks she got after the surgery was as success was something she’d missed working in New York. It was a shame that she would have to leave soon.

“I did a surgery today. Appendectomy,” Josephine informed her father as they had dinner.

“Oh? How did go?” He wasn’t particularly excited. This was normal for her. She’d done thousands of surgeries before, and an Appy was about the most common one. But in her role as Head of Hospital, she was all admin and no action. It had been sometime since she had last had a scalpel in her hands.

“Went well.”

He glanced up at her. “And?”

Josephine looked down at her meal. “It felt amazing. It felt like I was making an impact on lives again. I missed that feeling.”

Her father nodded. He didn’t fully understand what she was talking about. For him, a surgery was surgery. Not that Doctor Benjamin Mars didn’t care about his patients. He cared about their wellbeing greatly. But he didn’t connect with them the way she did. For him, the extent of his work was keeping them alive. To his credit, he had done his best to understand her perspective these last few years. That was why he prompted her to speak on how she felt about it.

“You have that look in your eyes again.”

“What look?” Josephine enquired.

“The same look you had before you told me you were moving out of the house when you were little.”

“I wasn’t little, Dad. I already had my first master’s degree.”

“You’re changing the subject.” He was going to let it go.

“I’m thinking about leaving Phoenix Ridge.”

“You just got here, been here barely a couple of months now,” her father pointed out.

“I know!” Josephine replied, slightly exasperated. “But…ugh! Everything!”

“Sweetheart,” Benjamin put his fork down and stared her in the eyes. “You’re a beautiful woman. You’ve achieved far more than I have ever dreamed for you. But, above all else, what I want for you the most is for you to be happy, and it pains me to see you run away from your own happiness time and time again.”

His words struck a chord in her. She wanted to argue, to dispute him. She was a successful doctor. She didn’t run away from that. She’d made a name for herself and left her father’s shadow. She didn’t run away from that. Josephine didn’t see herself as that coward her father was making her out to be.

Then why are you running away? a small voice asked in her mind.

Because it’s for the best!

For who?

The last question rang in her mind. An image popped into her mind. Ember, sitting on that park bench, staring out into nothingness. Had their breakup really done her any good? Would leaving be better for her?

Josephine sighed. The answer might have seemed easy and straightforward to everyone else. Not to her. Not when she cared about her friend. Becky might hate her guts now, but she had always been a good friend. In the hard times with Eva, it was Becky’s friendship that kept her afloat. It allowed her to escape from the misery of coming to terms with the fact that her relationship was completely dead. Everyone in her life knew about it. They gave her pitying looks, which she hated. Becky didn’t know, and in many ways, helped her return to her normal self again.

She resolved to try and reach out to her friend. They deserved closure too.

“What are you going to do now?” Benjamin asked as she got up.

“I’m going to give Becky a call. See if she wants to talk.”

He nodded. “Good luck.”

Josephine was going to need it if her last encounter with Becky was anything to go by.

Josephine dialed her number on her way to the apartment. After the first two rings, she was certain she wasn’t going to get any response.

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